Started out at 5.00am for Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site built around 900 AD. Very spectacular to say the least. It is a temple with no rooms, built covering a hill, all the inscriptions are on nine tiers on the outside which are read in a clockwise direction, it tells the story of the life of Buddha. The top has no inscriptions but 72 stupors each containing a Buddha, the central one originally contained a gold Buddha.
Next stop was the Palace. Yogyakarta is one of 5 special Provinces in Indonesia. It is granted this status as it is an special region governed by a Sultan. The palace was interesting, the illustrated family tree has many branches and leaves. The current Sultan has one wife and five daughters, no heir. He could take three more wives but declined to as any sane man knows, one is enough.
We walked back to the region of the hotel for lunch and a quick nap.
At 2.30pm we headed to Prambanan, it is also 9th century and is Hindu. It consist of the three main temples, three auxiliary temples, two flanking temples and 240 family temples. The main temple is dedicated to Shiva the destroyer (of evil) has 4 chambers, with shrines to Durga, Ghanish, Rishi Agastya and the main chamber for Shiva. It was destroyed in a 2006 earthquake and has been rebuilt, only opening again as recently as last month. Once again listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and rightly so.
It was 6.00pm when we returned so most of us enjoyed a meal and beer at one of the western restaurants 'Easy Goin' but we all had Indonesian dishes, I had the Rendang (spiced and caramelized meat served with fresh veges), Lynette had Gudeg (Jackfruit and coconut milk served with boiled rice. It was delicious.
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